Breaking news

Rare fish spotted in False Bay

A rare fish species has been sighted at False Bay, near Whyalla in South Australia, a long way from its other known habitat.

Filmmaker Dan Monceaux says there have been few recorded sightings of the tiger pipefish in the state since it was first seen at Port Pirie in the late 1960s.

The species is a member of the same family as seahorses and is more commonly found on Australia's east and west coasts.

Mr Monceaux and a colleague took what he believes could be the first images of the fish in its natural habitat.

"That was always the intention, to not capture or bring a specimen to the surface as has happened in the past but to capture footage of the creature in the wild and we were lucky enough to do that," Mr Monceaux said.

He says the Upper Spencer Gulf is the only place in South Australia the sub-tropical fish has been found.

"It's very much an isolated population and these animals only occur elsewhere in the country on the eastern coast north of the Victorian border and on the west coast north of Perth," he said.

"So it's a very interesting find and a reminder of how unusual the ecosystem is there in the northern Spencer Gulf."